The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945

Winner of the Shazar Prize for Jewish history, Israel's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, this monumental, engrossing narrative is arguably the most comprehensive account of the Holocaust to date. Tracing the Nazis' rise through their combination of tight control and improvisation, Yahil shows why Europe's Jews were sorely unprepared for Hitler's persecution and absolute tyranny. In the Jewish councils (the Judenrat), which nurtured the illusion that intercession with Germans could save at least a remnant of Jewry, this professor emeritus of Hebrew University sees one of the principal reasons for the Jews' helplessness. A masterful prose stylist, Yahil makes the unbearable readable. Proceeding country by country, he describes the deportations and liquidations, the inhuman slavery in the death camps, as well as ghetto uprisings, rescue attempts and the world's inadequate responses to impending tragedy. (Oct.)